The
negotiations between the Local Government Employers and UNISON, Unite and the
GMB which are due to start on August 12th represent an important
development in this year’s pay campaign. The fact that they are going to happen
at all is significant as it shows that the national two day strike in July that
involved 500,000 UNISON and Unite members was effective. However although the
employers have been forced back to the table, it doesn’t mean that the outcome
of the talks is guaranteed.

Five years ago the USA and Britain
invaded Iraq. They lied that it was because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction. Really they were just going in to steal Iraq’s oil. They killed a
million people, but they said Saddam was a dictator, which was true. They were
going to set the Iraqi people free.

So what are we to think when we hear
that 8 Iraqi trade union leaders are to be transferred from Basra to
Baghdad.  Their crime? They oppose the
law that passes Iraq’s oil over to the greedy hands of the foreign
multinationals. Their lives are at risk. Iraq, and specially Baghdad, is a
cauldron.

On Saturday 19 July around
300 Kurdish teachers protested against Farzad Kamangar’s death
sentence. At the gathering in Sanandaj, in Iranian Kurdistan, the
teachers read out a manifesto in defence of Farzad Kamangar, calling
his death sentence unjust and demanding that the authorities revoke it
and release him immediately.

The following statement has been issued by John McDonnell MP regarding
attacks on left wing activists in Unison by the bureaucracy. Follow the
links at the bottom of the article for articles explaining the background to this disgraceful
campaign.

Most had already proclaimed it dead, and were surprised to learn that
the WTO was meeting in a frenzied attempt to conclude its "Doha Round"
negotiations. The prospects for wrapping up a deal were slim, and many
expected the WTO to lapse quickly back into coma. With the collapse of
the talks, that is precisely what happened.

In 2007 Socialist Appeal hosted a meeting in London with Alan Woods speaking on the history of Bolshevism. Here we provide the audio files.